Lesson learnt :)

[Symon]

Hi all,
I'm brand new to the heli world and have just bought a TREX 450XL SE. I'm sure I will be here alot in the coming months. But hopefully not to tell of my stupidity again.
Half paid for (800+ so far) by my partner as a Christmas pressie, I've been tweaking and reading up on this machine. I set it up the other day and got a slight hover (9secs or so) in my front room. Obviosly too confined for flight and I'm not 'allowed' out with it till Christmas
Anyway, the other night I had it sitting next to me live. Throttle hold was on and my throttle was also at the bottom. I was looking through the tx menu and got to the rev part where I had previously set ch1 and 2 to reverse. In my absolute stupidity I pressed reverse on ch3! 8O No prize for guessing the result. The thing powered up full belt, I s@t myself, pressed the throttle cut (did nothing quick enough) and it proceeded to cut into my foot and leg with no remorse. The Doctors in casualty at 1am in the morning found it quite amusing that a 31 yr old man had hurt himself with his toy helicopter. My attempts to tell them it was not a toy kinda fell on deaf ears Fair enough I suppose, I was an idiot.
Anyway, the girlfriend now hates it (she s@t herself too) and has vowed to brow beat it to death! I, on the other hand, love it more. I have total respect for it and I'm damn sure I'm going to have many years of fun with helis and grow into bigger and better ones. I may have only had a silly 9 sec hover out of it but it was a total buzz. Bring on Christmas day
Speak to you all soon.
Merry Xmas and a happy new year

[Stuart]

Symon,

Never laughed so much ....sorry, but its the way you tell the story.

I just had these visions of the whole situation.

Sorry to hear about the visit to A&E, but as you say lesson learn't even though a painful one.

I'm sure your good lady will come around in the end. If you need any help in the future just shout. Merry Xmas..

[Symon]

Haha,
I agree, it's a scene right out of 'Some mothers do ave em' or any other farce like that.
My leg did 80 worth of damage to the heli so I guess we could call it evens!!! haha
Although I'm 80 down and cut to ribbons so I think I'm not going to call it evens right now!!! hahaha
Both my leg and wallet will heal so onwards and upwards. But yeh, it is very funny and it'll be laughed about at this end for some time to come I wouldn't be laughing if it was my face though. Hell no :?
Lets hope I'm not the only idiot out there and maybe some others might add there disasters to this post
Come on...I can't be the only one! At least I hope not! hahah!

[Captain_Bodge]

He he quite a funny story. It's the way ya tell 'em

I've done a very similar thing - the throttle should have been reversed but wasn't, so as soon as I plugged in the battery it went straight to full throttle! Luckily for me it was only a micro helicopter, it vibrated itself off the table, crashed to the floor, and broke. And this was before I'd even attempted to fly it!

Things like this teach you important lessons!

[Janek]

Here's one of my "stupid" stories, hope you enjoy :lol:

Earlier this summer, I was happily flying my Raptor 50 around the field, but the day was drawing to a close, so I brought it down and landed it. Normally I would have shut down the engine before I approached, but as it was the last flight that day I was going to leave it running and clamp off the fuel line.

Thus I put the throttle stick at low, approached the heli, leaned across and put my hand on the top of the rotor head, to slow the blades down. As the blades almost came to a stop, I stepped into the rotor "diameter", and lent across the heli to clamp off the fuel. . . . . . . . . .

The last, oh, so slow, dregs of blade movement took a blade into my Tx, which was hanging off the end of a monkeys arm (mine). There was JUST enough energy to flip a switch 8O , unfortunately it was the Idle Up switch. . . . . . . . . .

It's amazing just how much energy can be transferred in nano seconds, from an instantly screaming engine, though the rotor head, into my shins.

Luckily for me, the engine stalled, and it failed to draw blood, but feck me, did it HURT. I needed a new set of blades, a flybar, feathering spindle, and V paddles.

The heli has NEVER been closer to getting kicked around the field, but sanity prevaled when I realised it was innocent, and the real culprit was the idiot with the Tx in his hand.

Lesson learned, stop being over confident, and use the Throttle Hold. . . . . . . . .

[Symon]

Haha, I can totally sympathise with wanting to give the things a good kicking when they bite. I'm really proud of myself for not teaching mine a lesson of my own! It's tiny though, so I thought best of it. A lot harder to through yours off a nearby wall than mine. haha
But you're right...it's our fault they do bite
Well I don't feel so alone in the world now hehe.

[marktigere1]

One of mine.

Early days and the Shuttle was hovering nicely with the training undercarriage in place etc

Wind decided to turn 180 degrees.

Heli pitched up and flew straight back towards me.

Moment of panic and total inexperience I simply ducked and luckily the Heli flew over me and gained altitude.

Turned round, landed and then changed me trousers ops: ops:

Didn't fly any more that day although some of the chaps in the pits pi@@ed themselves laughing. Thanks guys.

Cheers

Mark

[Symon]

I thought I'd show you what started this thread. It's not healing as well as I would like but it's ok. It's worse than it looks :| Stitches out though

Hope you're not eating your tea!!!

[mo]

Hi Chaps.
I should imagine most of us have a horror story or maybe two that has happened to them with our hobby, and I have to be honest and own up to my most embarrising one.
A chap asked me to test fly an Hirobo HRB that he had just purchased, and although I had no experience of flying these little copters, I agreed to do this for him.
To my suprise I had no problems with this little heli at all, and I was in seconds confidently flying it from room to room, I also made a very good job of setting it up for the most docile manner of flying for him to make his task of learning easier.
After completing my flights and showing him that it flew as near hands off as possible, I confidently landed it on the kitchen floor and leaned towards it to switch it off, the next thing I knew was that I had a facefull of Hirobo XRB doing its best to cut my throat, as I had lowered the tranny the throttle stick had caught in my jumper and given full up.
I was lucky in moving faster than I thought possible to drop the heli before it hit the ceiling but alas at the cost of broken blades, I was most apologetic and offered to pay for the replacement parts, but he had the good nature to see that it was a complete accident, and as he was happy to see the heli fly,this was declined.
The person who the XRB belonged to will most proberbly read this account of my misfortune(or lack of care), and to him I will say sorry once more.
GOOD FLYING.
Mo.

[Symon]

WOW! You are lucky to be here I think 8O My little trex cut me down to the shin bone. If it was my throat I would have been killed or there abouts :|

So you are very lucky I think. These things are scarey machines. :evil: